Dale Leary of Cutler Bay, Florida and Exchange Student Marta San Jose Arrested for Lewd and Lascivious Conduct With a Minor

Dale Leary of Cutler Bay, Florida was arrested this week together with his one-time foreign-exchange student Marta San Jose for allegedly sexually abusing San Jose’s teenage sister. Leary, 50, and San Jose, 21, reportedly worked together to lure the then 14-year-old victim to move in with them and they sexually abused her for two years.

According to the police report, Leary met San Jose through a foreign-exchange program when she was 16; she is originally from Spain. San Jose attended a public school in Miami-Dade as an exchange student and was hosted by Leary and his ex-wife Claudia Leary.

After San Jose completed her junior year in high school, the Learys reportedly flew with her to Spain to convince her parents to let her stay in Florida for her senior year. Her parents agreed. Before San Jose completed her senior year, Leary reportedly divorced his wife and married San Jose a few weeks after she turned 18.

Investigators said San Jose’s parents did not know the two had become lovers. The newlyweds returned to Spain and convinced San Jose’s parents to let her younger sister, who was 14 at the time, move to Florida. The parents agreed.

When they returned to Florida, the couple allegedly started “manipulating” San Jose’s sister into believing that she was sexually abused by her parents. She told investigators that San Jose and Leary started having sex in front of her and asked her to let Leary perform sex acts on her because it would help her cope with being a victim of sexual abuse. The couple allegedly convinced her to engage in sexual activities with them over seven times. They also reportedly got her drunk and took nude pictures of her wearing high heels.

It is unclear how long Leary has been a foreign-exchange host, but he has purportedly hosted several young exchange students over the years. Miami-Dade police detectives believe there could be more victims and are asking any other women to come forward.

It is also unclear if background checks were performed on Leary before he was allowed to become an exchange host. Public records from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement show Leary broke into a home in the 1980s, bound a woman at gunpoint, and sexually assaulted her in her bathroom. He was convicted for armed burglary, kidnapping, and lewd and lascivious behavior. He entered a guilty plea and was jailed for 60 days with 13 years of probation.

Lewd and lascivious battery is a second-degree felony punishable by 15 to 25 years in prison. A person can be charged with multiple counts of lewd and lascivious battery, even though there is only one alleged victim. A multi-count indictment can be filed by the prosecution if the offender has had multiple encounters with the victim.